Senior officers in police email porn scandal

POLICE up to the rank of superintendent are facing the sack as part of a major investigation into pornographic and racist emails circulated through the Victoria Police computer system.

Up to 30 police have been implicated and more than 20 charged with disciplinary offences that could result in dismissal.

At least 10 police charged over the email scandal have been ordered to attend internal discipline hearings due today and tomorrow, at which their futures will be decided.

Two police have already resigned rather than face the hearings. Another took his own life after he was suspended.

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The serious discipline charges include disgraceful conduct and failure to comply with a lawful instruction from the Chief Commissioner. One police source said those ordered to appear at the hearings were accused of accessing material ''of the most extreme and graphic nature''.

Another group of police implicated over less serious breaches will be dealt with at a divisional level. Investigations into a ''small number'' of high-ranking police are continuing.

The Ethical Standards Department investigation, code-named Barrot, has tracked hundreds of emails that have been circulated through the police network for more than 12 months.

In March, Healesville sergeant Tony Vangorp committed suicide after he was suspended and told he was likely to be dismissed. Allegedly inappropriate emails were found on his computer.

He shot himself after he was told he needed to show cause why he should not be dismissed because he had lost the confidence of Chief Commissioner Simon Overland.

Assistant Commissioner Jeff Pope has been assigned to hear the latest charges, but due to the seniority of some police under investigation, Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones will hear some cases.

Sir Ken warned police this year that sending inappropriate emails could result in dismissal.

One of the emails at the centre of the investigation contains a graphic image of an ethnic man being tortured. It is alleged the email was sent to several police computers with offensive comments added by some officers.

One policeman was found with more than 100 inappropriate emails on his work computer.

The Office of Police Integrity is running an operation, code-named Hal, into homophobic, explicit, sexist and racist material circulated on police computers.

Last month, the OPI published a report for police on assessing unauthorised and inappropriate emails.

A spokesperson for Mr Overland said: ''We can confirm there will be a number of hearings over the next two days but will not comment further as investigations are continuing.''